Kevin Pelton, storm.wnba.com
Lauren Jackson made WNBA history Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Jackson scored 47 points in the Storm's overtime loss to the Mystics, tying the WNBA's all-time record. It was a special evening for a special player.

Jackson was dominant in the second half, scoring 23 out of 27 Storm points during one stretch. She reached 30 points by the end of the third quarter, broke her previous career high (35) early in the fourth period and scored her 40th and 41st points from the free-throw line with 3.2 seconds left to play. The two free throws tied the game and forced overtime.

Jackson's final bucket, a three-pointer in the closing seconds of overtime, pushed her to 47 points on the evening, tying Diana Taurasi's effort in triple-OT last August at Houston. The three was also Jackson's 18th field goal of the evening, breaking the record of 17 she shared with Taurasi and Chicago's Jia Perkins. Jackson became the fifth player in WNBA history to score 40 points in a game, something that has been done a total of eight times.

Jackson shot 18-of-28 from the field and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line, hitting a pair of three-pointers. She grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds and committed just one turnover in 42 minutes of action. Jackson also passed Chamique Holdsclaw (3,975 points) to become the WNBA's fifth all-time leading scorer.

Recap | Box Score

SINGLE-GAME WNBA SCORING

Points Player Opponent Date 47 Lauren Jackson, Storm at Washington (OT) 7/24/07 47 Diana Taurasi, Phoenix at Houston (3OT) 8/10/06 46 Katie Smith, Minnesota at Los Angeles (OT) 7/8/01 44 Cynthia Cooper, Houston at Sacramento 7/25/97 42 Cynthia Cooper, Houston Utah 8/16/99 41 Lisa Leslie, Los Angeles San Antonio 6/25/06 41 Diana Taurasi, Phoenix at Houston 7/27/06 40 Katie Smith, Minnesota at Detroit 6/17/01

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The baskets came on layups, on jump shots, on fall-aways, on turnarounds, on runners, on floaters, against double-teams, against triple-teams, in-control, off-balance, off offensive rebounds, from the free-throw line and from beyond the arc.

What an amazing show LJ put on tonight in Washington. A career-high 47 points for the Awesome Aussie. It was arguably the greatest single-game performance in WNBA history. Full Blog Entry

"Sometimes you shoot really badly, and sometimes you shoot really well. For me, it's like hit or miss, and I just shot really well tonight."
- Jackson, Seattle P-I

"It's more impressive to me knowing they just came off of a road trip and this was the last game. She should be leg weary at this point. But she comes out and almost gives us 50. Wow! That's MVP-type numbers."
- DeLisha Milton-Jones, Seattle Times

"We did everything we could to stop her. She had a great game."
- Alana Beard

"She showed why she�s the MVP of the league."
- Anne Donovan